Confident Golden Retriever Gives Paws-on Lesson on Going Down Slide
Lilly the golden retriever took charge to aid a hesitant fellow dog at the park.
— -- When one confident older dog saw another far-younger dog hesitating to go down the slide at the park, she quickly took charge of the situation.
Emilee O’Brien, 23, took the two golden retrievers -- Lilly, 9, and Layla, 2 -- to a park in Naperville, Illinois. There, Lilly went down the slide with no fear.
Layla, who is being fostered by the O’Brien family, wasn’t quite as sure of herself, so when she got to the top of the tube slide, she hesitated. O’Brien tried to coax the dog down to no avail.
That’s when Lilly stepped in.
Video of the June incident shows the older dog nimbly climbing up into the chute, grabbing Layla’s trailing purple leash and pulling her all the way down. The smaller dog arrives safely, and Lilly continues to tug on Layla’s leash and delivers it to O’Brien.
“Lil, such a good girl!” O’Brien can be heard saying in the video. “Oh my gosh, Lil. You’re so sweet!”
Emilee’s father, Pat O’Brien, told ABC News that he couldn’t believe how Lilly stepped in to help when his daughter sent him the video.
“I could watch it a million times it continues to crack me up that she had the wherewithal to take it upon herself to grab the leash and bring the little one down,” he said.
The video was posted to YouTube on June 29. As of Tuesday afternoon, it had been viewed more than 225,000 times.
Pat O’Brien said Lilly gets along well with the other dogs he’s fostered.
“And once she comes in she’s kind of like the mom. It helps us a lot,” he said. “She gets along really, really well with all of them.”
O’Brien said Layla is available for adoption through As Good as Gold, a golden retriever rescue group based in Wheeling, Illinois.
Robin Sweeney, the executive director of As Good as Gold, said Layla will be available for adoption in about a week.
Layla is epileptic and on medication, but she hasn’t had a seizure in the two months she’s been with As Good as Gold, Sweeney said in an interview with ABC on Tuesday.
The dog came to her organization as a rescue from Love Puerto Rico Goldens, a group in Puerto Rico that rescues golden retrievers and transfers them to homes in the United States, Sweeney said.
People interested in adopting Layla can visit As Good as Gold's website to learn more about the process.
